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With fans like this, who needs enemies?
8 December 2011
Success only succeeds in large companies if the entire organization buys into the mission. So I'm concerned that the astonishing engineering effort that produced the Chevrolet Volt will end up fizzling out because GM's CEO, Daniel Akerson, hasn't bought into the mission.
Reuters reporter Larry Ingrassia, a longtime Wall Street Journal automotive industry observer, interviewed Akerson on camera, primarily to ask him about the Volt's battery issues and the federal investigation.
Then Ingrassia prompted Akerson to talk about the wildly popular Chevy Cruze, which gets better gas mileage than the Volt. Why would you want to buy a Volt, he asked?
Akerson's response is a complete head-scratcher. (Direct link to the question and answer.)
A ringing endorsement of an innovative design is not what I got out of his response. The answer suggests that it's not a true game-changer for the company.
And if you're in engineering, that's disheartening. It's disheartening because you're constantly pushed to meet unreasonable deadlines, to juggle flaming torches, and meet marketing requirements that often puzzle you.
And, when you produce that masterwork–and the Volt really is an engineering marvel–it's disheartening to hear that your CEO can't reflect that effort and its promise.
Am I off-base? Or do you, more often than not, see your own management not completely dialed in to the values you're designing into your electronics systems?
Cliff December 9, 2011 at 2:29 pm
At about 1m20s into the YouTube Interview, Akerson talks about First Responders usually drain the tank and disconnect the battery on conventional vehicles post crash. Really, Mr Akerman? He then procedes topostulate that First Responders should drain and then disconnect the battery on a Volt post crash. Uh-huh. By picking up the battery and pouring the electrons on the ground???
Having a CEO not actually buy into a product is really frustrating. But to have a CEO that is that far out of touch with reality rattle off total BS just proves he is a salesman instead. (Yes, we all know that the way to tell if a salesman is lying is when his lips move.)
William Ketel December 9, 2011 at 8:45 pm
The Volt is an interesting car, but way to expensive for my needs, at least, so far. And while it does produce fewer emissions it may not satisfy all the environmentalists. The company did the best that they could to build a car that met with the government requirements, but then the government did not buy all of those cars, and a lot of people did not want them. The real problem is that people seldom purchase a product that they don't want. THat is not a new concept. People would not buy the "stability control" option until legislation hammered it down our throats. It will not help a good driver, only an inexperienced one making wrong choices.
The problem is not that there is any engineering flaw in the volt, it is that it is not what people want. The problems with fires a few days after a crash are not problems in design, they are the results of not finishing the required safety procedure for a crashed vehicle. The big problem is a technically illiterate bunch of media vultures having nothing better to attack.
Robert Czarnek December 13, 2011 at 11:11 am
First a correction. Only six thousand Volts are expected to be sold in 2011 according to Bloomberg. If we, the taxpayers, didn’t subsidize almost 20% of its price this number would be in hundreds. We don’t want it. It is a big, expensive exercise for GM engineers resulting in a complete failure. And let’s not forget that hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ money were spent on it. It might be the most complex vehicle on the road but at double the price it cannot match performance of a Prius unless you use skewed statistics. In the same conditions, it means in hybrid mode, Prius gets over 50mpg where Volt is rated at 37mpg. The range of a Volt is measured in optimum conditions. Try to drive it in Michigan where most of the time you use either heat or AC and the range in the electric mode goes down. The post office will not accept a coin lithium battery because of the fire hazard. Here we have hundreds of pounds of such a battery located in the passenger compartment and this is in addition to the regular gas tank.
Looks like the regenerative braking implemented in Prius makes this car fuel efficient. An electric car is a politically driven lunacy as long as we burn coal and petroleum products to generate this electricity. It might be justified if we replace all natural gas burning plants with nuclear power plants. For many years I was a strong supporter of buy American and driving Ford and Chevrolet vehicles but considering the lack of judgment if not pure corruption shown by GM management I would not buy any of their vehicles for years to come.
Randy December 13, 2011 at 2:37 pm
The volt is a good start. The problem is that the EV1 project should have continued R&D in order to keep ahead of Prius. But because of short term thinking we fell short.
Somehow, america has to do more long term thinking to compete.
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Dean Psiropoulos December 9, 2011 at 1:27 pm
I agree that it is disheartening to work one's a– off for management that does buy in 100%. The Volt specifically may be an innovative thing but with less than 10,000 sold in a year I think you need to look at "societies" buy in and that's a whole lot less than 100% given this production rate. I've said it before and I'll say it again, given the other options, I'm NOT BUYING a Volt or any other hybrid for that matter, especially at those prices, even with goverment subsidies! Innovative yes, but to many of us the hybrid concept seems like such a kluge, the price is high, and we're not getting the kind of benefits that the hype suggests we should. Maybe it's time to look at putting those brilliant engineers to work designing the next "big thing". Maybe that is some sort of car, that makes use of Volt technology, that provides more bang for the buck or…maybe it's something else.